Student Essay Competition: ‘Peace In Korea’
We’re proud to announce that one of our own students, Heidi Robertson, has been awarded the Korean Ambassador Prize by the National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC) for her essay on Peace In Korea. Below is a short interview with Heidi discussing her writing process and winning the competition. For more information on the essay brief, click here.
What made you enter the competition? Was there any specific reason/motive as to why?
I entered the competition because it was a topic that interests me and something I have wanted to look further into before. I also thought it would be a great opportunity to add something of interest to my CV or something I could use as a talking point when applying for my year abroad in Korea.
How did you prepare for the competition, and did you have any specific aims?
At first, I was very overwhelmed, the topic of reunification of Korea can be controversial, and discussing how it should be done felt like something way out of my league. I wanted to make sure I researched not only Korean History in general, but I wanted to know what led to the divide in detail and research current and past views of the Korean people. It ended with me joining the Korea Peace Now project, global coalition of women’s peace organizations calling for all countries involved to sign a peace agreement.
Using the research, I wrote down key points as there was so much history and information, I could have used but I had in my head that I wanted to create simple steps that could be followed and backed them up with evidence of similar things happening throughout global history. Luckily, my Korean tutor Kyoungmi helped me narrow down the extensive list of historical events I wanted to include originally.
How do you feel being the national winner of the competition?
I am still very much in shock, when I entered the competition, I was thinking how great it would be just to say I participated and give myself an excuse to look further into a topic I already had interest in but after receiving the email from the NUAC I was so happy to have won but then to find out I got the top prize of the Korean Ambassador award. I didn’t really know how to react. Honestly, I keep thinking some kind of mistake was made, the other candidates at the award ceremony discussed some amazing points. However, overall I am so proud of the achievement and hope this will be the first of many achievements I would like to make in my life.
Heidi’s Korean tutor, Kyoungmi Kim, also commented:
The Korean Pease Essay Competition provides university students in the UK the opportunity to share their thoughts on how to bring peace on the Korean Peninsula. Heidi Robertson wrote a brilliant piece discussing potential steps towards the unification of North and South Korea by using examples of other unified communities. She has an in-depth understanding about Korean history and broad interests in Korean society, and is enthusiastic about developing Korean language skills.